


Sometimes Stories Are True

by Snow



Category: Fairy Tales and Related Fandoms, Sleeping Beauty (Fairy Tale)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, Community: au_bingo, F/F, Fairy Tales, overthrow of a government, vaguely cyberpunky
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-24
Updated: 2010-06-24
Packaged: 2017-10-10 06:29:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,246
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/96636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snow/pseuds/Snow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>My name is Mary Samuels, and I've been a member of the Resistance for five years.  Even my parents don't know that I'm involved.</p><p>My mission: to wake Sleeping Beauty, the woman whose continuing sleep gives de facto power to the current, highly corrupt, government.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sometimes Stories Are True

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Llwyden](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Llwyden/gifts).



> Written for au_bingo, for the square Future: Author's Choice. Llwyden actually suggested Fairy Tales for Steampunk, but eh. This is what happened instead.

In the center of the city, the woman who was its heart slept on. She'd slept so long that her name had been forgotten; it was as lost as her age and the reason that she slept. The people called her Sleeping Beauty, and every one of them thought of her as their hero. She was the heart of the city, and she was trapped. It was my job to get her out.

I was an unlikely member of the Resistance, being female, still in the closet (so straight as far as the security databases knew), too young to remember the last attempted Revolution, and the cousin of one of the current City Councilors.

"Okay, I did it." Jay's voice cracked and popped over the com line, filling my ears with a burst of static. Our com system wasn't pretty, but it was as close to secure as we could get.

"My fingerprints are in the database instead of hers?" I subvocalized the words, trusting in the equipment to pick them up and enhance them to something Jay could hear.

He was working offsite, back at the Resistance base, where he could speak freely, so his words came back with the original humor intact. "I sure hope so."

With an exhale that was short enough of a sigh that the subvocalizing software wouldn't pick it up, I stepped forward to the door to the Inner Chamber, where Sleeping Beauty slept. "Identify yourself," the door said.

"Cassie LaBelle." My cousin's name seemed to echo through the empty hallway. If Jay's attempt to change the voice print hadn't gone through it wouldn't necessarily mean I had to call the mission off; voice prints were notoriously imprecise. Still, it would mean that a failure to have my fingerprints match the records would result in instant execution.

Thankfully the door didn't register a complaint. Instead a panel slid open and cube popped out. I placed my hand on the cube, and a second later it hummed in what sounded like contentment as the door slid open.

The other side of the door was even quieter than it had been in the outer corridor. "I'm in."

Jay's voice returned through my earpiece, wry and strong. "Since the alternative was that you were dead, I'm glad."

"I'd never die on you, Jay." The promise came easily because I knew how much of a lie it was.

"Yeah, because I won't let you. Now, are there three corridors in front of you, one of which ends immediately in a dead end?"

"Yes. The right-most one."

"Trust the Council not to change the architecture for fifty years."

"They don't want to do anything that might wake her. Which way do I go?"

"Left. That'll end after 50 meters, then turn right. There'll be a door there. It's up to you to get past it; none of our files have the answers. Then you have a woman to wake." It sounded simple enough, so I prepared myself for heat scanners or automated lasers.

The door I reached was steel and stretched all the way to the ceiling. It looked pretty damn impregnable. "State your name," it said, and this time the words definitely echoed around the chamber.

"Cassie LaBelle."

"Your name."

I tried to remember what Cassie was short for. "Cassandra LaBelle."

The door was implacable as the first time. "Your name."

I sighed. "Mary Samuels." No alarms went off, no government patrollers seized me. Instead, the door swung open.

"Thank you," the speakers implanted in it said.

"What are you doing?" Jay's voice was loud, angry, and too late.

"I'm in," I snapped, daring to speak audibly. "Now shut up."

I'm not, as a general rule, attracted to people when they're unconscious. I need a solid nine hours of sleep a night; my partner being asleep is a pretty strong sign I should be too. Even unconscious, Sleeping Beauty was gorgeous.

Her hair was long and black, tumbling down to her wrists in graceful waves. Lying down as she was, I couldn't tell how tall she was, but she looked remarkably healthy for a woman who'd been asleep for hundreds of years.

Having taken the moment I needed, I stepped to stand beside her head. I squeezed my eyes shut and prayed to every god I knew that this would work. Then I opened my eyes and kissed her.

This was it. If I'd failed I was stuck here until dehydration set in. I was watching carefully, so I caught the brief flutter of her eyelids. There was no way I could have missed the way she then sat up, touching her fingers to her lips. Her eyes, as expected, were brown.

"You're my prince." Her words were flat, but her eyes were lively, quickly picking me out as the only other person in the room. I could see her tracking the curves and angles of my body.

It was an effort to actually say the words, because I was so terrified she'd declare me inadequate and go back to sleep. "I'm Mary. And yes."

She laughed, a girlishly delighted sound. "Thank God."

I wasn't quite sure what to say to that, but she didn't give me much of a chance to respond.

"You want to kiss me again, now that I'm awake, so I have a chance of remembering it?"

"Actually, we have a city to save."

Her flirtation dropped, replaced by a brisk business-like manner. "Save from what?"

"Its own government."

She sighed. "How am I supposed to help with that?"

"You're a symbol. Every single one of the city's inhabitants recognize your power as superior to their own. All you need to do is tell them that you've chosen a new ruler."

She crossed her arms under her breasts. "What if I want to rule the city myself?"

"What?"

"If I'm to trust you, then the current government is corrupt or whatever." I was momentarily immobilized at the idea that she might not trust me, even though I recognized that she had no obligation to, save the fact that some of the rumors about her referred to a true love's kiss as being the only thing that would make her wake. "What guarantee can you offer me that your own government will be better? I was born to rule. I'd be good at it."

"Just so you know, this is being broadcast live over all city channels," Jay's voice murmured in my ear.

I ignored him, because I could not deal with that kind of pressure right now. Instead I just said what felt right. "My life," I said. "I believe in the Resistance with every fiber of my being. You're, frankly, a little out of touch. And we've been preparing for this, for putting limits on our own power even as we make the city a better place to live in. I'd die before I'd let us become as bad as the current government."

Sleeping Beauty nodded, perfunctorily. "I intend to keep you to that. But I will pass my right to govern on to your new leader. Her name?"

"Richard Esperanza."

"Fitting. I hope he rules well."

I bowed my head. "Thank you," I said.

"Is it as simple as that, or is there something more I need to do?"

I shook my head. "It's been done."

She smiled at me, heat in her eyes. "What do you think we should do now, Mary, since we've saved the city?"

**Author's Note:**

> I welcome and appreciate comments, including constructive criticism.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Somtimes Stories Are True [podfic]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/784405) by [KD reads (KDHeart)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KDHeart/pseuds/KD%20reads)




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